It’s now been 4 months since I submitted my final capping paper for approval and completed my MEd. Wow was it a lot of work!!
In the months that followed finishing my capping paper I worked like a maniac on our school’s Grade 7 year end project (as Teacher-Librarian and as Grade 7 Team Leader) and on wrapping up my own year at school/work. I worked madly planning and organizing the Manitoba School Library Association annual SAG Conference of which I am the Chair. I attended my convocation in Edmonton, Alberta, and the following week attended my brother’s wedding in which my two children were flower girls. Finally as of July 1, I have been able to relax for the first summer since . . . forever!! So it has only been in the last month that I have been able to really think clearly and reflect adequately on the capping process and my capping paper itself! The Capping Process
The University of Alberta TL-DL program has the capping process down to a science, which made the whole experience so much less stressful than one would think. Each student is paired with a writing partner who reads, edits and advises on possible revisions to their partner’s paper. I was lucky enough to be paired with the most wonderful and amazing Rhonda Morrissette who is the Teacher-Librarian at the Winnipeg Adult Education Center. Even better was the fact that we live in the same city and so we often met over coffee to discuss our papers, our struggles and stresses and our work as teacher-librarians and as fellow members of the Manitoba School Library Association Executive. Suffice it to say that having Rhonda as my writing partner was the best thing that could have happened! The Various Difficulties I Encountered
I found the reflection section particularly difficult. I feel I am very good at critical writing, although I will be the first to admit that I can be quite verbose and . . . well, longwinded. I went through many many many versions of my lit review until I felt it said what I wanted it to say, included all the wonderful morsels of knowledge I gained, but was a length that didn’t scare away everyone who potentially wanted to read it! Even though that process was time consuming, it was not difficult for me. However, the reflection section was difficult. I kind of felt like I was floundering and that there was no real guidelines for what the reflection needed to be. Of course this is all part of the process and the feelings of frustration are normal in any inquiry process, but this was the first time I had personally experienced that level of angst over something academic. I know I should stop whining, but it was a struggle and I will never again underestimate the feelings of frustration that my own students feel while engaging in inquiry. It was quite a lesson for me. Specifically, my biggest issue was that I struggled with (and knocked heads a bit with my instructor over) the wording of my “recommendations.” I had thought the reflection was supposed to be a place where I reflected and expressed my opinion, and so I wanted to include some strongly worded recommendations for various stakeholders in my home province of Manitoba (school boards, government, universities, teacher-librarians, etc). However, the instructor advised me that those strong words could in fact be misinterpreted and that I actually sounded unprofessional. I found this maddening since one of the main problems that I perceive in our province is a lack of people willing to say the important and strongly worded things that need to be said about our education system. I did simmer over that for many a day and finally took her advice to heart.
I realized that if I wanted to get my message out (that Teacher-Librarians are essential in the 21st century education system here in Manitoba and everywhere) that I would have to be able to reach ALL stakeholders, and sometimes strong words fall on deaf ears. So I reworded all my “recommendations” and made them into implications of the literature review and eliminated any opinion. The implications now summarize pertinent findings from the lit review for each stakeholder and then note the implications of those findings for that particular stakeholder. It works, but I still would have liked to include recommendations, since I feel that I am qualified enough to make a recommendation as opposed to merely pointing out implications. BUT, there has now been quite a bit of interest in my work from various people in this province and so I may get to provide recommendations after all (whether it be the near or far future, who knows!!)
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